The one dish that completes the Swedish Christmas smorgasbord is the Christmas Ham! It’s center of attention and it’s what everyone is looking forward to all year . Well, almost everyone… 😊< strong>I didn’t like the Christmas ham as a kid. But I grew to love it and now it’s an absolute must!< a href=”https://healthycleanlifestyle.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/snapseed-12.jpeg”&gt;<<<<
radition my family had (and many other families in Sweden) was to cook the ham the day before Christmas (that is the 23rd of December in Sweden) and then ”glace” it with a mustard based glace and then put the ham in the oven for the glace to get crusty. Yum!<<<<
hen, in the evening, we had our first taste of the ham, on a nice piece of bread and some mustard on top! That’s almost the best moment of the whole Christmas. 😊

This year though, I am making the ham two days before Christmas as we’re having people over tonight. I am serving up a small Christmas smorgasbord and we’re just gonna have a nice little evening with nice foods and enjoy each others company. Looking forward to it!

So, without further ado, here’s the recipe for a very traditional Swedish Christmas ham (julskinka).

Ingredients:2 kg salt-cured unsmoked ham

water

3-4 bay leaf

10-20 whole allspice

10-20 whole whitepepper

1 onion

Directions: Rinse the ham under cold water and place it in a rather big pot.ur water over the ham so that it covers it with about 5 cm.d all the spices to it, and then stick a thermometer in to the middle of the ham. Set the temperature to 70 degrees Celsius (158 F).t the water come to a boil, and get rid of the scum on top. Turn down the heat and let the ham simmer for about 2 hours (1 hour per kilo ham) or until the ham reaches about 70 degrees. At 70 degrees the ham is rather juicy, at 75 it a bit dryer, which I prefer my Christmas ham to be.

Then let the ham cool. Rather quickly if you can, so put it outside if it’s cold outside, or in the fridge. Although you might raise the temperature in the fridge if you place the pot there.

Set the oven to 200 degrees C (390 F).x everything.ke the ham out of the water (save the water!) and dry it a bit with a paper towel.ace the glace on top of the ham. Then place the ham in the oven for about 15 minutes or until golden in color.

We serve the ham cold in Sweden. So let it cool before slicing it up and serving.

Serve with red cabbage, beet salad, bread flavored with wort, prince sausages (it’s just a tiny sausage), Swedish meatballs (recipe coming up soon), maybe a kale salad with oranges, a potato gratin with anchovy (I don’t like this and never make it for Christmas), juicy ribs, different kinds of cheeses, perhaps some different kinds of farrago, mulled wine, toffee, gingerbread snaps and whatever else you like on your Christmas smorgasbord. =o)